About

I work with drawing and moving image in playful experiments which speak about transformation, body and place; trying to make sense of lived experience of ageing, parenting, and urban outdoor spaces.

In recent years my practice has transitioned from animation and documentary, towards painting, collage and projection.

I explore the world by making observational drawings: a quick route into a flow state, turning off the rational part of my brain. From this place other things emerge: I cut figures free from the paper so that they can become part of a new story. I stitch fragments of video into new narratives. I manipulate archive material so that new interpretations can emerge.

I’m interested to hear voices that don’t get space in mainstream media. My work is motivated by trying to understand how we live now, and why we are as we are.

Portrait photograph of Alys in her studio, smiling at the camera. She is a white woman with short grey hair and glasses, wearing green shirt. Drawings can be seen behind her.
Photo credit: Rob Luckins

Bio


My film work has won multiple awards, and been screened at more than 30 festivals including Annecy, Krok, Stuttgart & Anima Mundi. Residencies include MuseumsQuartier Vienna and the National Media Museum, Bradford. My work has been exhibited at Freud Museum, Vienna, on the Biennale circuit, Venice and at Parasol Unit, London.

I’m a graduate of MA Animation at the Royal College of Art. With a background in animated documentary, I’ve worked as a freelance animation director, including commissions for broadcast television and national charities. I ran the Artist Development programme at ‘a space’ arts, providing support to visual artists. I’ve worked in education roles, teaching at Central St. Martin’s, Camberwell (both University of the Arts London) Arts University Bournemouth, BAFTA and BBC, among others. From 2022-2026 I was one of 15 members of the advisory panel for Artists Now: the UK’s professional membership organisation for artists (formerly, a-n). For further details of my experience, see LinkedIN.

I am passionate about supporting artists and advocating for the value of their work, and my freelance work supports creative people of all kinds.

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I’m excited to be exhibiting with @unprimed_collective, showing a new collage work which draws from Roche Rock, near St Austell in Cornwall, where family histories are entwined with memory and shifting identities (sneak peek, pic no 2). I’m super-excited to be running this new drawing session at the wonderful, warm and colourful Jo Morley Studio, Southampton, in November. Link to book tickets is in my bio. Self-Portrait in the Garb of a Nun (after Sofonisba Anguissola) is my work in the Unpeeled group show, Downstairs at the Department Store in Brixton. Fun in the snow yesterday, with drawings of @robinactormodel made at an online @draw_brighton life drawing session late last year… I’ve had the luxury of a week alone at home, with time to spend in the studio: drawing, thinking, organising. #SelfPortrait Little is more gratifying than discovering that work I made many moons ago is finding new audiences. Today I received a copy of Body & ‘Leib’ (Bodily-self-consciousness) in Animation Art by Luzie Kollinger, which features three of my early experimental animated documentary films, including Bun in the Oven, my graduation film made at @northumbriauni in 1999, Hysteria made @royalcollegeofart in 2001, and Herein made in 2004 during a residency @mqwien Vienna at the invitation of @trickywomen Back on the self portraits… Took the kids on a plane for the first time (long time coming) for a week in Spain. Flying is not the future, but taking them to a new country to experience being European and speak for real the language they are both learning, feels important. Being in the sunshine and warmth was a bloody revelation.